Simple pleasures

To me, there are few things that top reading while I eat. I picked up the habit as a kid. I'd come home from school (latchkey kid), get out the Oreos and milk and read. And read. And read. I read the World Book Encyclopedia (NERD ALERT!) I read old Reader's Digests. I read Time, Life, US News & World Report, cereal boxes, newspapers. Whatever I could get my hands on. Hell, I even read ingredient lists and nutrition information on the ketchup bottle at a restaurant. And my greatest pleasure is, of all things, the KC Star. I got a subscription to the Star as a Christmas present this year, and it's been one of the best presents I've ever received. (oh god...I hope their marketing department never finds THAT sentence!) But when I'm dining alone, which is far too often, nothing provides a fine dinner companion like the paper. I read all the little filler items. I read the classifieds. I read all of it....except the front section! Yeah, I know. The only section with news and I skip it. But what the hell. Today's headlines don't do anything to help the digestion, do they?

Another simple pleasure is crossword puzzles. (DOUBLE NERD ALERT) I'm addicted. Maybe that's one reason I like the Star. Their daily puzzles are far too easy, but the New York Times puzzle in the classified section does present a challenge. I go through books of crosswords at home, too. While I'm in the recliner (MIDDLE AGED NERD ALERT) watching the NFL network, nothing passes the time like working on a crossword. I laughingly refer to my addiction as "vocabulary development".

But you know, crosswords DID once actually come in handy. This past summer, I took off on a driving trip through South Dakota. At one motel, I was outside having a smoke when I heard a group of people nearby discussing the words that crop up all to often in crossword puzzles. Like nene, adit, eero...there are just some words that you always run into. And for some reason, I -- the ultimate introvert -- was drawn into the conversation. Turns out they were all volunteers working at a nearby paleontological dig called the Mammoth Site. I had seen the signs and figured it was just another tourist trap. But in reality, it was an ancient sinkhole that contains the skeletal remains of dozens of prehistoric mammoths. They convinced me to take the tour the next day, and when they saw me, they came up out of the pit and took me down into history. I actually got to touch the remains of an animal that has been dead for millenia. It was SO cool! And if it weren't for overhearing that conversation, it would never have happened.

And now that I've typed all this out, it sounds really hokey and kind of embarrassing. But I guess that what blogs are at times.